State responsibility

On 17 July 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed in Donetsk Oblast, Eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board MH17, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, died. It claimed the lives of 193 Dutch nationals, 43 from Malaysia, and 27 from Australia. Other victims came from a variety of countries including Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and the Philippines. From the start, both the investigation into the cause of the crash and the criminal investigation into the downing of Flight MH17 were severely challenged due to the ongoing armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists, supported by the Russian Federation, and the Ukrainian government.

This study provides an analytical, practical and theoretical framework on State liability and responsibility for environmental damage caused by major nuclear accidents as a result of nuclear activities in accordance with the existing rules of international law. Despite the traditional rules of international liability focus on reparation of the incidence damage, this study concludes that the role of liability for environmental damage must be extended to prevent damage that might result from a nuclear activity as a hazardous activity before it happens. The regime of liability has two functions: a preventive function and a reparative function

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Minorities

A systematic approach of international protection of minority rights began after the First World War by the League of Nations. The minority protection system was meant to protect group rights of homogenous populations within States, to further the idea of self-determination. After the Second World War the United Nations put the focus on universal rights of individuals, rather than on minorities.